John McEnroe would beat Serena Williams, even at age 56

A few years back, Serena Williams told David Letterman that if she were to play an exhibition against the then-reigning Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, she’d lose 6-0, 6-0 in a few minutes and doubted she’d win a point. Though the scoreline sounds reasonable, in our mind, Serena underestimated her ability to win points off her serve or just by waiting for Murray to hit unforced errors. Maybe she was simply being modest.

Now, the Serena vs. a men’s player debate is back in the news and, oddly, once again it was started on a late-night talk show. This time, 56-year-old John McEnroe said he could beat Serena, even at his current age, but definitely 15 years ago which is when he claimed that presidential-favorite-in-his-own-mind Donald Trump offered the two some money to play a match. Regardless, despite the passage of time and graying of hair, McEnroe says, “I believe that I could still take her.”

So could he? It sounds preposterous, right? Well, around the time of the Murray discussion, I polled some tennis insiders to see what they thought. Everyone agreed that Serena wouldn’t get a game off Murray and a few agreed that she wouldn’t win a point. No one believed she’d come close to beating a man in the top 100. When asked where in the men’s rankings Serena would be able to get a W, the answers ranged from “between 200 and 300” and “no one in the top 1,500.” (And let me add that the respondents were not people prone to hyperbole or sexism.) McEnroe himself once weighed in on the topic and said Serena might be able to be the No. 500 man in the world.

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Okay, so if we take Johnny Mac at his word, that means he thinks he’s as good as the 500th player in the world right now. So rather than ask the question at hand, let’s ask, could John McEnroe beat Ricardo Hocevar (the Brazilian currently ranked at No. 500?) So many hypotheticals, but I think he probably could, merely out of savvy and guile. The power would be problematic, of course. The world No. 1,000 is probably hitting the ball harder than McEnroe was in his prime, just by advancement in technology. No matter the ranking — and this is why Serena, who is the greatest women’s player who ever lived earned low marks in our guessing game — the power and speed of the game would be the problem. Still, I think McEnroe, who plays well at 56 on the champion’s circuit, beating players two decades his junior with regularity, could do it by changing up his pace, keeping the low-ranked players off speed and serving and volleying, a concept foreign to many current players.

But what about Serena? The knee-jerk reaction is to say McEnroe’s crazy — that Bobby Riggs was 55 when he lost to Billie Jean King and Serena is far better than Billie Jean ever was, simply because of her power. But I saw McEnroe play a few years ago and he looked pretty spry for a man in his mid-50s.

(Getty Images)

That’s why, gasp, I think he might be right. My pick: Johnny Mac in three sets (if they played best two-of-three). And I think Serena Williams would probably agree. I’m not saying McEnroe would definitely beat Serena, but I think if I had to bet on it, I’d pick Johnny Mac (while secretly rooting for Ms. Williams). Serena isn’t a bad pick though, because her serve alone might be enough to overpower McEnroe.

But this is frivolous talk, as just over one week from now Serena will be trying to win a calendar Slam and her fifth major overall. Hypotheticals are meaningless. It doesn’t matter how Serena Williams would do against any man. All that matters is how much she dominates her own competition.

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